


Sunset Ghost

by quackers



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Drifting, Kaiju (Pacific Rim), M/M, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-29 01:28:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19819726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quackers/pseuds/quackers
Summary: In a world beset by monsters, experimental, barely-tested tech is used to protect humanity. Ranger Bergara loses his partner during a fight with a Kaiju and must find himself a new one before the coastline is attacked again.(A Pacific Rim AU)





	Sunset Ghost

**Author's Note:**

  * For [abovetheruins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/abovetheruins/gifts).



“Prepare for drop.”

“Prepared for drop,” Ryan said, the servos in their Drivesuits whirring as they bent their knees and braced for impact.

“Dropping.”

The freefall never failed to make childish glee fill him. Ryan could feel Brent’s amusement at his reaction as they crashed through the water and landed with a jarring thud but kept their balance. Through the screens and protective windows of their conn-pod they could see Mammoth Apostle go down to one knee, having botched the landing. Ryan carefully kept his smirk out of his voice when he reported, “Touchdown.”

It was only their second deployment and they were already outshowing the older, more experienced Jaeger pilots. Brent threw a quick mental image of him as a kid gloating over something stupid, but Ryan refused to tamp down his pride. They had worked hard to get to where they were and he thought being the youngest pilots with the newest Jaeger in the world was something to be justly proud of.

All of his smug self-esteem went out the window when the lead helicopter pilot drawled over the comms, “Give ‘im hell, Bergara. Try not to trip this time.”

“What am I, chopped liver?” Brent asked as they took their first steps through the ocean. “We both tripped.”

“Give ‘im hell, Sunset Ghost,” came the amused correction.

Brent snorted. “You can definitely tell which one of us he likes better.”

Ryan tried to keep calm but he could feel how his face was heating up and it was incredibly embarrassing to know that everyone with access to his vitals back at the Shatterdome would know just how affected he was.

Thank God Madej was in a chopper and couldn’t see what he was doing to his blood pressure.

“Who just leaves a ship on the bottom of the ocean?” he muttered.

“Keep it professional, gentleman,” came the stern voice of their commander. “We’ve got a class two Kaiju about to make landfall. Flirt on your own time.”

“Yes, sir,” Ryan and Brent said in the same voice, Ryan’s embarrassment echoing back and forth between the two of them before he managed to master it. The pointed reminder of the threat working its way towards Mexico’s coastline sobered him quickly.

That didn’t stop him from risking a quick glance at the radar. Madej and his squadron were already ascending and ready to provide eyes in the sky if need be. Most importantly, they were far out of the reach of the Kaiju.

At Brent’s mental nudge, Ryan turned his attention back to the approaching Kaiju.

They had a monster to kill.

\------

Ryan knew he was being watched, but he kept his focus on the punching bag, concentrating on the shock of contact traveling up his arms and the burn of muscle as he continued his rapid jabs. He needed to get better. He needed to be _faster_. They had yet to hit the actual limits of their Jaeger’s speed and he knew, despite what Brent said, that it was his fault. Speed had never been his strong suit but he was doing all he could to change that.

There was no point in having the fastest American Jaeger and first Mark-3 in production if they didn’t utilize it. He still had no idea why it hadn’t gone to a pair of Rangers that might have been more suited to Sunset Ghost, but he was determined to prove that it wasn’t a mistake.

“Not many Kaiju sit there and let you punch them.”

Ryan huffed out a quiet laugh at the sudden voice, amused despite himself. He wasn’t in the mood for company and had hoped that the Jaeger pilots' gym at eleven at night would be a good hiding spot, but Shane was always able to find him. And he didn't hate having the guy around. "Maybe they'll codename the next one 'Punching Bag'."

Shane chuckled and moved forward into the room, heading towards the racks of equipment with a familiarity that he shouldn't have had. Then again, one gym in the dome was probably just like the others, the only difference being in size. He casually slipped on a pair of focus mitts and motioned Ryan over. “Come on, Bergara, a stationary object isn’t going to do you any good.”

“Do you even know how to use those?”

All that got him was a raised eyebrow and a small smirk.

Wiping the sweat off his forehead with the back of his wrist, Ryan made his way over, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet. “Gonna coach me? You, the helo driver?”

Shane brought his hands up. “Just punch the mitts, Ryan. Try to avoid my head.”

“Big enough target,” Ryan whispered, grinning to himself when Shane snorted.

The focus mitts were usually used as a training tool, the person wearing them calling out combos of jabs, hooks, and dodges to help the striker learn how to move on their feet. It was more than standing there and being a moving target. There was a certain level of skill involved in directing the striker and providing a counterbalance and knowing how to use them was part of what made a coach go from good to great.

Rather than wait for Shane to call something out, to see what he would do, Ryan threw a jab at the left mitt, messing around for his own amusement.

Shane didn’t hesitate, the mitt raised slightly to meet his fist center on, the small force of pushback he exerted keeping Ryan’s punch from moving his hand backward.

That wasn’t what Ryan had expected to happen. He had assumed Shane would just hold the mitts out, that the guy had no idea what he was doing.

This changed some things.

Ryan met Shane’s challenging grin with one of his own and they both settled into proper stances, eyeing each other intently. The first few blows were cautious, Ryan mixing it up with a couple of dodges and feints that were more to test out Shane’s reaction time than to try and actually throw him off balance, but Shane seemed to know exactly what he was doing as he did it. They soon fell into a rhythm that flowed so naturally it felt rehearsed.

Training was never quiet, as coaches were always shouting something or other about techniques and procedures, but there were no words exchanged between the two. Other than Ryan’s grunts of exertion, Shane’s increasingly labored breathing, and the smack of the gloves hitting the mitts, it was nearly silent in the room.

Time passed but Ryan had no idea if it was minutes or an hour. The strange dance they were engaged in was nearly peaceful, slipping Ryan into a meditative state that he was rarely able to achieve. It wasn’t until his tired muscles gave out on him and he fumbled an easy punch that they slowed to a gradual halt, arms hanging limply at their sides.

“Shit, Shane,” Ryan said in between panted breaths, his eyes wide as he took in what had just happened. “The only time I’m that in sync with a sparring partner is when I’m with Brent. And we’re in each other's minds half the time.”

Shane shrugged, his open, tired expression smoothing into something neutral as he pointedly wiggled the mitts. “I was just a target. Not much actual sparring going on there.”

“Dude, where did you get your training?”

“I _was_ in the Air Force,” Shane said, looking away dismissively. “I know chopper jockeys have a reputation but we do go through some physical training.”

Ryan tore open the velcro to his gloves with his teeth, confused by Shane’s attitude. “I was in the Air Force, too, and I remember basic. Running in circles and pushups didn’t exactly take skill.” When the other man said nothing, he continued with, “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you had training with Holt.”

Shane slipped the mitts off, dumping them back on top of the equipment racks in a way that would probably get them yelled at. “Probably because I did.”

“What? Are we talking about the same guy? Short, angry, probably a serial killer? The _Ranger_ trainer? ”

“Yup,” Shane said simply, brushing past Ryan as he headed towards the door. “That’d be the one.”

“But why-”

Shane paused to look back at Ryan before leaving the room, laughing at his expression. “I’m being mysterious. I can’t just tell you, that’d ruin the fun.”

“Yes, you can!”

“Nah,” Shane grinned at him, the corners of his eyes crinkling. “You’re cute when you’re confused.”

Ryan squawked and threw his glove, practically giggling when it hit Shane in the chest. “You’re such a dick, dude.”

Shane winked and took a step forward, his smile going soft. He started to answer, but the door opening startled them both.

Brent leaned through the entrance, rolling his eyes when he saw the two of them. “Figured. We’ve got four hours of simulations at 0600, Ryan. And I refuse to sleep in the same room as you if you don’t take a shower.”

Ryan groaned at the reminder of the early wake-up, but half of his attention was on the way Shane’s smile had dropped into something polite, easy body language disappearing in favor of a straight back and parade rest shoulders. He had never gotten the impression that Shane hated Brent, but it was clear that he was uncomfortable around his partner. Ryan couldn’t figure out why.

“I’ve got an early morning as well,” Shane said, nodding towards them in a farewell that bordered on professional. “Gentlemen.” He ducked through the doors and left before anything else could be said.

Both Ryan and Brent stared after him, though Brent seemed amused. “When are you two going to stop dancing around each other? Neither of you are officially part of the military anymore, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

With anyone else, Ryan would have denied his attraction and the unmistakable spark between him and Shane immediately. Maybe they weren’t still a part of the US military, but prejudices didn’t disappear just because they had transferred to the Pan Pacific Defense Corps and its Jaeger Project.

Except that Brent was occasionally taking trips through his goddamn brain, so it was pointless to lie. Just like Brent knew better than to lie about who had taken the last of the cookies Ryan’s family had sent him.

Ryan bent to pick up the glove that had fallen to the floor, fidgeting with the velcro. “I don’t know. I just-” He grimaced, thinking of the way Shane had winked, the soft smile and the comfortable tension that had filled the room before Brent had interrupted them. “I don’t know, man. He flirts like a fish breathing water, but he only seems serious about it if we’ve been alone for awhile. When he forgets that I pilot a Jaeger."

Like always, Brent followed his train of thought easily. "You think he doesn't want to get involved with someone that has good odds of being eaten by an alien monster?"

"He seems like a practical guy," Ryan muttered before forcing a smile. "But he's not thinking it through, because whoever gets my life insurance is going to be set for life."

Brent shook his head. "Putting the cart before the horse, Ry. Try at least fucking him before making him your insurance beneficiary." They both chuckled, but Brent's laugh trailed off as he gazed thoughtfully out the open door. "You know, he might think you're not available."

Ryan looked up from where he was wiping down the equipment he had used. "What? What do you mean?"

“There aren’t many non-familial pairs piloting Jaegers, despite how often they throw random people together at the Academy. And most the pairs that aren’t related are married.”

“Marshal Pentecost-”

Brent waved his hand. “We all heard the rumors about him and Sevier at the Academy. Everyone thought they were fucking.”

Ryan made a face as his tired mind caught up to what Brent was implying. “God, you and me? I’d rather cut off my dick.”

“Ditto, but stay away from my dick. Madej might not know that, though.”

As much as the idea irked him, Ryan had to admit that it would explain Shane’s behavior around Brent. And why he never let the flirting turn serious.

Actually, that made a _lot_ of sense.

Suddenly Ryan felt far more hopeful for the next day.

\------------------------

The Los Angeles Shatterdome was a huge facility that took up square miles of coast line. The heart of it all was the large dome in the center that housed the Jaegers and Ryan spent most of his time there or in the Ranger’s training room. There were long stretches of days where he didn’t set a foot outside and sunlight became just a memory. He bitched about it as much as the other Rangers did, but none of them really meant their complaints. If intense physical training for fourteen hours straight was what it took to defeat a Kaiju and save innocent lives, then they were more than willing to do it. Personal sacrifice meant little in the face of that.

Still, it would have been nice to have at least a bit more free time. To watch a movie or get a chance to talk to someone that wasn’t the same pilots, trainers, and doctors he saw every day. That was how he had met Shane, afterall. A chance meeting in a new mess hall, when Ryan had been too tired and hungry to pay attention to what room he was in. It hadn’t been until he had sat down with the slop they called food that he had realized all of the helo personnel were staring at him.

Shane had saved him from his growing embarrassment by plopping down next to him and asking if he had been the idiot to name Sunset Ghost and if that meant he thought of himself as a ghost.

Ever since then, when the timing was right and he had a moment to himself, Ryan would go to the deck where they kept the Jumphawks on the off chance he could spot them performing maneuvers. While Ryan had been hoping to become a fighter pilot before the PPDC had been created, he had to grudgingly admit that watching the Chinook-like helicopters touchdown was breathtaking. It was relaxing to lean against a railing and let the breeze cool him off as Shane’s squadron returned. Sometimes they were out on training missions, sometimes they weren’t, but it never failed to impress him how easily the pilots could maneuver the huge choppers. Coordinating eight different helicopters to pick up and move thousand ton Jaegers took immense precision and skill and Ryan thought he would have had an interest in Shane from that alone.

The tall, slim figure Shane cut as he walked through the ground crew towards him also helped. The setting sun behind him was a bit gratuitous, but Ryan appreciated the effect all the same.

“Come to see real pilots work, Bergara?” Shane asked as soon as he was within hearing distance, his grin giddy under his aviators.

“Too bad I didn’t see any.”

Shane bumped his shoulder into Ryan, though his height made it more like an elbow to the arm. “Someone sounds jealous.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Ryan asked in mock offense, the two of them falling into an easy walk towards the nearest mess hall. “Which one of us pilots a literal goddamn mech?”

Smile falling, Shane looked away. “I’m sure it’s all hype.”

Ryan tilted his head, confused by the reaction. He was used to a certain level of envy from others but it didn’t seem like that was Shane’s problem. The guy looked more uncomfortable than anything else. Like he always did when Ryan mentioned the Jaegers.

Remembering Brent’s suggestion from the night before, Ryan blurted, “I’m single,” before his brain could catch up to his mouth.

Shane ran into a wall.

After a few seconds of swearing and Ryan’s laughter, Shane finally managed to say, “That, uh, that’s good to know?”

Laugh turning into something strangled and embarrassed, Ryan rubbed at the back of his neck. “Just thought I’d put that out there.”

There was a moment of silence, then Shane cautiously asked, “So you and Bennett aren’t…?”

Ryan shook his head. “We’re just friends.”

“Friends that read each other's minds.”

“That’s not how the neural link works-”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s all scientific mumbo jumbo,” Shane said, interrupting him with a manic lilt to his voice. “You’re single.”

Ryan smiled at his feet, unable to look directly at the other man. His stomach squirmed in pleasant nerves. “Yeah.”

“You wanna go get-”

“You wanna spar?” Ryan asked, grinning at Shane’s expression.

He had meant it as a joke, so he was surprised when Shane called his bluff, narrowing his eyes and saying, “You know what? Yes. Yes, let’s go spar.”

\------------------------------------

Ryan had severely underestimated his opponent.

He was aware of some of the younger Ranger trainees gathering around the mat, but he couldn’t spare any thought for them witnessing him getting his ass handed to him by a fucking chopper jockey because Shane was driving a fist straight towards his face. Only honed reflexes and hours and hours of training kept him from ending up with a black eye.

While he appreciated that Shane was taking this seriously, he was not looking forward to the reaming he was going to get from the trainers when news of their sparring session got out. By all rights, he should have had Shane on the floor in five moves, but the guy seemed to have an uncanny ability to know exactly what he was going to do.

Shane had reach on him and it was only Ryan’s painfully acquired speed that was keeping him from getting thrown. He kept trying to trick Shane into a position where they could grapple, since that would bring his strength into play, but Shane was proving to be wilier than expected.

A dodged punch, a slipped hold, a knee blocked by a thigh, a one-two-three combo of jabs, then finally- _finally_ \- Ryan was able to bring Shane to the ground, the taller man locked in a hold that he couldn’t get out of.

Shane tapped out instantly and Ryan let go, the two of them slumping into each other and breathing heavily. Ryan was keenly aware of the feel of Shane’s ribs moving under his back with each breath as he panted, “Fuck, man, you are way better than you should be.”

“You’re just predictable,” came the reply, Shane doing nothing to push him off. Which was a nice surprise.

“You saying you’ve been watching my training?” It wasn’t that odd of an idea. Anyone with clearance had access to the rooms and it wasn’t rare for people to wander through to gawk at the trainees and full-fledged pilots alike as they went through their brutal training. Ryan found he rather liked the idea of one Major Madej abusing his rank a little to watch him.

Shane lifted one hand and wiggled it from side to side. “Maybe. Once or twice.”

With a groan for tired, sore muscles that weren’t too happy to have gone through _another_ sparring session that day, Ryan came to his feet, extending a hand to help Shane up.

Warm skin slid over his palm, their hands wrapping together in a strong grip and God, Ryan was a little annoyed at himself that he was feeling all fluttery over such a simple touch when they had been grappling with each other moments earlier. But damn it, his blood was pumping and Shane was staring up at him with a tired, soft expression, sweat soaked hair looking better than it should have and all Ryan wanted to do was bring him forward into a kiss. He wouldn’t, because he was a professional and he wasn’t going to pull that kind of shit in front of impressionable young Ranger trainees, but fuck, he really wanted to.

Just as they pulled at the same time, the alarm sounded, sending Shane crashing into him from surprise, but neither of them were paying attention to that.

Ryan sent a wild-eyed look at Shane, already taking a step away. “A Kaiju-”

“Go,” Shane said, pushing him lightly. “I’ll pick you up in twenty.”

Choking on a laugh at the flirty tone, adrenaline wiping away all of his exhaustion as he ran through the doorway, Ryan yelled over his shoulder, “That was a shitty pun.”

“You’re just jealous you can’t use it,” was shouted back, making him grin all the way to the conn-pod.

\-------------

“Fuck, watch its tail.”

“I’ve got an eye on it.”

The Kaiju, an ugly fucker codenamed Stegos for its general appearance of an armored dinosaur, roared in their direction and charged again. Following years of training, they used their Jaeger’s speed to dodge to the side and deliver a brutal blow to the top of the Kaiju’s head as it passed. The shock of the hit shook the entirety of Sunset Ghost, but Ryan felt a fierce burst of pride as the monster stumbled, the rocky coastline they had driven it to giving it no purchase.

Alarms rang as movement was detected to their side. They raised their arms too late, the sharp tail of the Kaiju ramming through their Jaeger’s chest, just missing the reactor core. Right where their heart would have been if the Jaeger was human.

There were still issues and flaws with Drifting. Quirks and glitches that were sometimes funny and sometimes deadly. Ryan had once sneezed while Drifting with Brent and it had sent all of Ghost’s systems haywire. It had turned out fine since it had merely been a test run. But if they had been fighting a Kaiju at the time, they would have become casualties instantly.

In that moment, with a giant hole where their heart should have been, Brent fell prey to the signals his body was giving him.

Ryan could feel the whirl of memory, the suction of fear pulling them both down, and he shouted, trying desperately to stop it. “Brent! No-

\- **_he had always loved his mother’s chocolate chip cookies. He was old enough now to know that she used the same recipe that Gary’s mom used, but he was convinced that his mom just made them better. Any chance to get one was taken._**

**_Which was why he was sneaking into the kitchen right after school. If he grabbed one just as the oven timer beeped, he could blame his sister before his mom came back downstairs from folding laundry._ **

**_“Don’t you dare touch that oven-”_ **

**_The ground shook under him and he caught himself against the wall, pulling his wide-eyed mother under the doorframe, obeying years of school drills in the event of an earthquake. They weren’t rare in California, but he couldn’t remember one ever feeling like this before._ **

**_Another shock wave rattled the house, a glass-framed photo falling to the ground behind them._ **

**_“This isn’t an earthquake,” he realized, turning and running towards the kitchen windows. A faint reverberating noise that made him shiver echoed through the air. “Do you hear that? What is that?”_ **

**_“Brent, get away from the windows!”_ **

**_“Mom, where’s Christie?”_ **

**_“On her way home, please, get away from the windows!”_ **

**_His eye caught on something moving, something taller than the buildings that lined the shore, taller than the bridge he saw every day. Something that couldn’t be real._ **

**_A monster._ **

“Brent!’

“Systems critical in sections five through fifteen-”

“Snap out of it Bennett!”

“It’s not real, Brent!”

_“Mom, look at the TV!”_

_“In a second, Ryan.”_

_He stood frozen in the middle of the living room, unable to tear his gaze away from the TV screen, his brand new flip phone vibrating in his hand as his friends started calling him, all of them wanting to know if they were seeing the same thing. “Mom, the news! There’s a monster attacking San Francisco!”_

_“What? Ryan, what are you-”_

**_“Brent, we need to go!”_ **

_“Oh my God, all those people.”_

**_“Take my phone, call your father, we’ve got to-”_ **

**_“Mom, watch out!”_ **

Ryan snapped out of Brent’s memory in time to block the Kaiju's mouth, the screech of metal against its teeth so loud that he heard it through layers and layers of metal and protective glass. Muscle memory more than actual thought made him slam his fist into the Kaiju’s head, the skull that had been weakened by several such blows giving way with a crack.

With a thin whine, the Kaiju’s jaw loosened, it’s body slowly tilting away to fall with a mighty crash into the ocean. A massive wave splashed up, pushing Sunset Ghost and making Ryan stumble back on instinct to brace himself.

The effort of moving tons of metal through water proved to be too much, the neural feedback of piloting the Jaeger by himself sparking through his nerves, pain erupting behind his eyes and his vision going white as his brain tried to cope with the entirety of the Jaeger. Voices were shouting in the comms but all he could register was the crushing weight of the ocean against his legs and the gaping wound in his chest.

“Kaiju is down, Kaiju is down-”

“His vitals are spiking-”

“Shut it down!”

“He’s still Drifting with Bennett-”

“We’re not losing _both_ pilots, shut it down!”

The pain and pressure seemed to snap, Ryan’s mind falling back into itself, into his own flesh and blood body. The lingering presence of Brent disappeared and he was left, once again, all alone in his head.

Before the darkness of passing out could take him, he dimly heard, through the pounding of his own heart echoing against his eardrums, “Jumphawks in position for pickup.” And then so quietly he might have imagined it. “Hang in there, Ryan.”

\------------------------------------------

“You look like shit.”

Shane jerked his eyes up from where he had been staring at his hands, his expression shocked and hopeful “Ryan! You’re awake!”

Ryan grimaced, bringing a hand that felt far too weak up to rub his forehead. “Am I?” The pounding in his head that had driven him from sleep felt odd. Unlike any pain he had ever experienced. It was like something had been ripped from his mind.

“Let me get the doctors,” Shane said as he stood up in a rush, his hand visibly shaking as he patted Ryan on the shoulder. “I’ll be right back.”

“Wait!” Memory slammed into Ryan, the machines monitoring his vitals beeping faster. “Brent? Where is Brent? Is he okay?”

Shane looked away. “Bennett is…” At Ryan’s distressed noise, he shook his head. “He’s alive, Ryan. Brent is alive. But they think…”

“What? What is it?” Ryan wanted to stand up to shake Shane, but even sitting up was proving to be too taxing.”

“They think he’s stuck in the Drift. They thought you were, too, but you fell into a regular sleep a few hours ago.”

Ryan stared. “That’s not possible.” At Shane’s sympathetic grimace, he slumped back against the pillow. “No. No, that can’t- If they shut it down, we both should have- But-”

“Ryan, Ryan, it’s okay,” Shane said, hunching over in a way that was probably uncomfortable, just so he could pull Ryan into an awkward hug. “He’s alive. It’s just a coma. He’ll probably wake up like you did.”

Clutching onto the back of Shane’s shirt with what strength he could muster, Ryan realized, “I fucked up. This is my fault.”

Shane sighed, his cheek pressed into the side of Ryan’s head. “Don’t do this to yourself.”

“If I had remembered the damn tail-”

“No. There was two of you there. No matter what it might feel like in the Drift, you don’t become a single person. Brent didn’t see it either. It’s not your fault.” Shane pulled back, settling one hip on the edge of the bed so that he could study Ryan’s face. Between the stubble and the dark circles under his eyes, Shane really did look like shit. Like he hadn’t slept for two days straight. Ryan couldn’t have cared less, though he wondered why they had let a Jumphawk pilot into his room while he was still unconscious. Either way, he was glad the man was there, even if he didn’t believe what Shane was saying.

“I should have been better.”  
“You know Holt will tell you that both of you should have been better.”

The response surprised a small laugh out of Ryan, since he knew it was true. Once Brent woke up- and he was going to wake up, damn it- their trainer was going to put them through the ringer.

Shane smiled back at him, then made to stand up again.

“Wait,” Ryan said, something selfish making him say it. “Please stay. I’m sure the doctors will come by soon, anyways.”

There was a moment of hesitation as Shane’s gaze darted back and forth between his eyes before he settled back down, and slowly, so very slowly, leaned forward to press a gentle kiss to Ryan’s forehead.

Ryan’s breath caught and he closed his eyes, trying to hide how the simple action made tears spring to his eyes. He couldn’t lose it now. Not when their privacy was bound to be invaded at any moment.

Perhaps sensing that Ryan was on the edge of breaking down, Shane kissed him again, but this time it was a loud, smacking kiss that ended in a comical ‘Mwah!’ Ryan spluttered and pushed at the man, laughing and exclaiming, “What the fuck?”

Shane shrugged, grinning at him. “Hey, it got you to smile.”

Ryan shook his head, doing nothing to hide the mentioned smile. “Fuck you, man.”

“Well, if you don’t mind a doctor walking in on us… “

“Shane!”

\-----------------------------------

“We need to find a replacement for Bennett.”

“No.”

“Bergara, this isn’t up for discussion.”

Ryan kept his face neutral from a sheer effort of will, but he wasn’t entirely able to hide how his hands curled into fists. “Sir,” he said as steadily as he could. “There is no other pilot that I’m compatible with-”

“We’ll have you go up against the new trainees,” Holt said dismissively, already looking at his clipboard. “They’re in the training rooms now.”

“Sir,” Ryan said again. He couldn’t stand the idea of Drifting with a complete stranger, no matter how compatible they might be. “Bennett could wake up at any moment.”

Holt looked up and narrowed his eyes. “And he might never wake up,” he said gruffly, in a way that was, for him, gentle. “We don’t have time for your personal feelings. Mammoth Apostle is in Russia for the next six months and Romeo Blue is out of commission for repairs for at least the next two.”

“Attacks aren’t that frequent and the odds of a third breach occurring closest to the LA Shatterdome is-”

“Bergara!” Holt snapped. “You will find a new partner and that’s an order. Or we’ll find someone else for Sunset Ghost.”

Ryan could do nothing but accept the ultimatum. Maybe it was arrogant of him, but he couldn’t leave the protection of the coastline to someone else. He needed to know that he was doing everything he could for humanity, and he knew that Brent felt the same. Brent would rather have him out there with a new partner than sitting around waiting for him to wake up.

So for the next two weeks, he trained and sparred with various new trainees and even a couple of personnel from the US military that were thinking of making the transfer to the PPDC. But none of them clicked in the same way that Brent had. It was an exercise in frustration that drove Ryan to try even harder, growing fear that they would take Ghost away from him making him seek out younger and younger trainees to spar against. He would Drift with a nineteen-year-old if it meant he was able to keep fighting.

This time was proving no different, however. The young woman who was currently squaring up against him was too nervous and full of energy. He felt old and jaded in comparison and he wasn’t even thirty yet. Her form was good and her speed was well suited for Ghost, but her strikes were sloppy. There was no way she would be able to keep up with the precision Ryan required.

He brought her to the mat without breaking a sweat, offering her a hand up when she gave him a wry smile.

As he was sipping from a water bottle, he saw Shane casually leaning against the far wall and he smiled in something like relief. With Holt and the base commander pressuring him to find a new partner, he hadn’t had time to himself. Seeing Shane from a distance, and once waking up to a bowl of popcorn on his chest from where he had fallen asleep in the rec room, was the only chance he really got to interact with the man.

He grinned as Shane slipped through the trainees that were going through their stretches, both of them ignoring the curious looks from trainee and trainer alike. “So you do still work here.”

“Aw, you missed me,” Shane drawled, laughing at him when Ryan looked away. “How goes the search?”

Ryan shook his head and sighed. “Not great. They’re all kids.”

“And you’re such an old man.”

“At least I’m not a geezer like you,” Ryan returned, pleased to note the way Shane grinned at his teasing. Rather than focus on the way Shane’s lashes looked against his cheek when he blinked, Ryan tilted his head towards the center of the room. “Wanna give me an actual work out before I have to go back to testing the kids?”

Shane straightened, his expression falling before he offered a strained, unconvincing smile. “You don’t want me showing you up in front of everyone.”

Ryan raised one eyebrow. “Scared, Madej?”

With an eye roll, Shane shrugged out of his button up shirt, leaving him in uniform pants and an undershirt. “Fine. Don’t cry when I wipe the floor with you.”

Finally, Ryan was able to really let himself go and spar without holding back. Fighting Shane was a challenge, but a challenge he enjoyed. It was downright _fun_ to go up against someone that met or dodged all of his attacks and he had to admit that it wasn’t exertion that left him flushed when Shane managed to slip past his guard and flip him. Shane had more muscle than he would have guessed and there was deceptive speed in those long limbs.

Hell, if Shane had been a Ranger trainee instead of a helo driver, he probably would have been a perfect replacement for-

“Wait,” Ryan said, catching Shane’s wrist and holding up his other hand. “Wait. You.”

Shane blinked at him, taking the opportunity to catch his breath. “Me?”

Ryan stepped closer, his voice raising in excitement. “You! You could be my partner.”

Shane’s eyes went wide.

“It’d just be until Brent woke up,” Ryan said quickly, already reading the initial ‘no’ on Shane’s face. “Which could be any day, it’ll probably happen before there’s even another attack, you’d just be doing training with me and, hey, you could pilot a Jaeger once or twice, who doesn’t want to do that?”

“Ryan… “

“Shane, please-”

“You don’t want to be in my mind,” Shane said in a low, controlled voice, his expression grim.

Ryan snorted, too giddy to take him seriously. “Because it’s such a dark place? This isn’t-”

“I used to be a Ranger.”

Sentence choked off mid-word, Ryan just stared at him, completely uncomprehending.

Shane grimaced and stepped closer, his voice even lower so that no one else could hear him. “I was one of the first to join the Ranger program. I thought- “ His eyes darted to the side, as if he couldn’t keep looking at Ryan. “I thought you knew. It’s an open secret. And when I realized you didn’t know, I didn’t want you treating me any different, so I never told you.”

“But you’re a Jumphawk pilot, how-”

“I had to do something to keep fighting,” Shane said solemnly. “If I can’t do it in a Jaeger, then I’ll make sure the Jaegers get to the enemy.”

Ryan slowly let go of the wrist that he had forgotten he was holding. “Did you get kicked out? Did you quit? What happened?”

Shane let out a long breath. “My brain chemistry isn’t quite right for Drifting. I don’t… I don’t connect right. It’s fine for the other person for a few minutes, but its starts putting a strain on them that can cause permanent damage.” His mouth curved in a self-deprecating little smile. “I’ve been told it’s like trying to Drift with a ghost.”

“But surely we can-”

“No, Ryan,” Shane said, implacable. “I’m not doing it. I get that we...that we connect. Or whatever New Age BS you want to call it. We’re compatible. But it’s not worth the risk just so you won’t lose Ghost.”

Maybe, if the conversation had happened a week earlier, nothing else would have been said on the matter and Ryan would have found someone else.

In an eerie echo of the last time he had sparred with Shane, as soon as Ryan opened his mouth to say something angry, the alarms sounded.

This time there was no jolt of adrenaline. Only sick fear. Of the two Jaegers still stationed in LA, Sunset Ghost was the only one left in working condition. Ryan couldn’t pilot it without a partner and it would go to a pair of Rangers who had never fought a Kaiju before and who would have no backup. Unless a miracle happened or it was somehow a weaker Kaiju than normal, the new team would be going on a suicide mission. If they died, there would be nothing to protect LA except nukes.

After what had happened to Sydney, no one wanted to use nukes.

“Shane,” Ryan whispered. “Please.”

Holt strode into the room, barking “Bergara!” as soon as he passed the doors. “Unless you’ve found your fucking soulmate, I’m calling in Lim and Ilnyckyj.”

“Sir, I think Madej-”

Holt glared. “No. I will not have Madej frying your brain just because you two lovebirds think you’re Drift compatible. Drifting is not _romantic_. There’s lives on the line.”

Ryan could feel his cheeks go hot, from embarrassment and anger both, but he kept his voice even when he said, “I’m willing to take the risk to my brain.” He ignored the rest of what Holt had said.

“I have more real experience than Lim and Ilnyckyj,” Shane spoke up, shocking the hell out of Ryan.

“You’ve been in a Jaeger _once_ , Madej. And that was two years ago,” Holt said, causing Ryan to shoot a quick, unbelieving look at Shane. “They’ve been in far more recent simulations.”

“Have them on standby,” Ryan interrupted, eager to push things forward while Shane was still willing. “We can Drift while Ghost is still in the Shatterdome. We’ll know right away if it will work or not.”

Holt glared hard at them, clearly holding back several swears. “Fine,” he finally spat. “We’ll try it. If this doesn’t work, I’m getting both of you kicked out of the PPDC. Ghost Drive Room. Ten minutes.”

He marched away before either of them could say anything, but Ryan only had eyes for the surprisingly clear look of terror on Shane’s face. “Thank you.”

Shane swallowed and started to stride towards the door. “Don’t. Just don’t. I need to inform my squadron that they’ll be flying with a replacement. Warn the suit team to be ready for me. I’m not going to try and fit into Brent’s Drivesuit.”

Ryan stared after him, longing to apologize, but he knew he hadn’t had a choice.

He would rather lose his own mind than watch fellow Rangers get killed in a suicide run. Or worse, watch every measure fail and LA be destroyed.

\---------------------------

Shane had been right.

It was like trying to Drift with a ghost.

If he had had the luxury of time, he could have appreciated the amusement inherent in calling Shane’s mind ghost-like while they were in Ghost, and when they had yelled each other hoarse about the possible existence of spirits in the past, but all he could do was clutch desperately at the few strands of Shane’s mind that he had managed to find.

The Drift connection was tentative at best, but it had been enough that their deployment had been okayed and they were already in the water off the coast, watching a Class IV Kaiju come knifing towards them in the water.

Ryan was used to Brent, their minds recognizing and reaching for each other without prompting. Trying to find Shane in the Drift was frustrating. There would be the brush of a presence that he tried to grab onto, then nothing.

He glanced over at Shane, the tall man looking like something from an old scifi movie in the polycarbonate Drivesuit. From what little he was getting from him, Ryan knew Shane was scared, which didn’t really fit the image. “Hey,” he said softly, drawing Shane’s gaze. “Just pretend it’s Holt and we finally get to kick his ass.”

Shane snorted a surprised laugh, his soft brown eyes crinkling, and Ryan-

_A glimpse of a tall, brunette woman, smiling at him as she passed him a dish filled with that night’s dinner. “So what colleges did you apply to today?”_

_“Actually, I, uh, was thinking of joining the Air Force,” he forced himself to say. “The attack on San Francisco-”_

_“But you love film-”_

Ryan gasped and-

- _The first time he sat behind the controls of a Chinook, nervous excitement running through him_

- _Fierce pride bursting as he received the phone call accepting him into the Ranger program and the Pan Pacific Defense Corp_

- _Crushing defeat as his third potential partner refused to Drift with him_

- _Determination. Grim hope as they gave him command of a Jumphawk squadron for the new Jaeger Sunset Ghost_

- _A thump of his heart as he saw an attractive young Ranger, slumped over his meal in the wrong mess hall_

The connection between them stabilized, snapping together in a thin line that was still weaker than anything Ryan had ever experienced with Brent, but strong enough that he could feel Shane’s incredulity and embarrassment under his fear.

And then the Kaiju reached them.

It was a long, slim form, it’s limbs thin and folded close to the body as it wound around them in tighter circles. It had been codenamed Livewire and the scientists who had gotten a look at its form speculated that it might produce electricity, just like an electric eel. Sunset Ghost was supposedly immune to electrical shocks, but Ryan hoped they wouldn’t have to find out if that was true. His plan was to finish this fight as quickly as possible, while the connection was still there between him and Shane.

Acting on instinct, the two of them reached out at the same time, Sunset Ghost grabbing the Kaiju by the neck before it could strike and ramming a sharpened fist blade through its side, the weapon new and welcomed.

The Kaiju roared and squirmed, wrapping it’s body around Ghost and hooking it’s claws into all of the edges it could find. The glass of the conn-pod was blocked by the dark, alien skin of the Kaiju, and Ryan felt a burst of uncontainable fear that froze him.

Oddly, Shane’s fear had been pushed down until it was practically non-existent. He was the one to raise Ghost’s hand and grab the Kaiju’s snout, wrenching it away from the upper half of their Jaeger.

Ryan was the one who brought Ghost’s foot down on the Kaiju’s tail, thousands of tons of metal breaking the thin appendage.

That wasn’t how Drifting was supposed to work. Drifting was a partnership, the two acting as one, making decisions at the same time. What he and Shane were doing was nothing like what he had been trained for. The give and take of control was dizzying, and Ryan knew with utmost certainty that if he had to do it for an extended period of time, his brain wouldn’t be able to handle the constant shock of sudden sensation.

But for now, with a Kaiju in front of them and the entire Southern California coast line behind them, Ryan let it happen.

He punched the monster in the head, Shane stabbed it in the neck, he blocked the mouth full of teeth, Shane dodged a sudden rush.

As it swam past them, Ryan felt an instinct that wasn’t his own. He thought of the way Shane had flipped him earlier in the day and he dropped into his own mind, giving complete control to Shane.

With a twist of the hip and a quick shuffle of feet, they brought the Kaiju to the ground, a great crash of water blooming up as they followed it down, a knee to its chest. They both stabbed it through the neck, hard it enough that the blade lodged into the rock under it.

The Kaiju writhed and began to glow, crackling blue electricity racing up and down nodes on its body. Systems began failing throughout Ghost’s computers, but they ignored that to wrench the blade through the Kaiju’s neck.

With a shriek that rattled into echoing nothing in the water, the Kaiju finally died, its head nearly split from its body.

Ryan brought them back to their feet, head and shoulders above the level of the ocean, and Shane retreated from his mind with tired elation. The feeling of Shane’s mind getting farther and farther away from his made a thought blossom.

“Oh my God,” he muttered out loud. Ignoring the confused shouts in the comms, he threw his helmet off as soon as the Drift had been terminated and pressed the controls to unhook his feet from the conn-pod’s rigging. Shane stared at him in surprise when he ran over and pulled Shane’s helmet off. “I figured it out!”

“Ryan, what-”

“Your weird brain gave me the idea!”

Shane frowned in confusion. “Thanks?”

“I need to Drift with Brent.”

“What? No, you can’t Drift with an unconscious person.”

“When you left! You-You-” Ryan waved his hands in an attempt to convey what his side of the Drift felt like. “You pulled away. And it felt the same as when Brent fell into that coma!” He didn’t bother to give Shane any room as the man stepped down from the rigging, the two of them practically chest to chest. “I can follow him down and find him! I know it!”

Shane raised one eyebrow, his expression skeptical and unmistakably fond. “Please run this by the doctors before you try this scheme of yours, Bergara.”

Ryan grinned up at him, his gaze dropping down to take in the way the Drivesuit looked on Shane. Now that the Kaiju was dead, he could finally appreciate what he was seeing. “I can’t set up a Drift by myself, of course I’ll get them to help.”

“That’s not what I meant-”

Taking them both by surprise, Ryan surged up to kiss him full on the mouth, letting himself enjoy the warmth of Shane’s chapped lips before dropping back to his heels. “You look so hot in the suit.”

“ _Ryan_ ,” Shane hissed, his eyes darting around to the cameras and sensors in the conn-pod. “You can’t just do that.”

“Not into being watched?” Ryan teased.

Shane closed his eyes and groaned, but Ryan knew he didn’t really mean it by the way his mouth kept twitching into a smile. “You’re terrible.”

“We just saved LA, big guy,” Ryan said with a grin. “We’re allowed to celebrate.”

“You know what?” Shane said after a second of thought. “You’re right. We did. Come here.”

\---------------------

The bulky helmet the scientists and doctors used to test out various configurations for the Drift,with its protruding wires and knobs, felt odd and unwieldy when compared to the sleekness of the Drivesuit, but Ryan knew there was no way they would have gotten Brent’s weak, comatose body into a suit.

Still, he felt like an idiot.

“You look like an idiot,” Shane observed from the doorway, his grin unrepentant under his aviators.

“Thanks,” Ryan drawled, a habit he had started to pick up from the big lug. “You’re a dick.”

Shane nodded agreeably, leaning against the door. “Sure am. You good to go?”

“Yeah, just waiting for the doctors to get here.”

“Nervous?”

Ryan bit his lip and thought the question over. “Not really? I know Brent’s mind nearly as well as I know my own. I’m mad I didn’t think of this a month ago.”

Shane wandered closer, seemed to hesitate, then sat in the chair next to his and picked up his hand in a loose grip. “Don’t get lost in there, Bergara.”

“I’ll be fine,” Ryan said with more confidence than was probably warranted. But he really did feel like this was the answer. Brent just needed someone to guide him back. Just in case, though- “You’ll stay with me?”

The grip around his hand tightened. “Ryan,” Shane said, exasperated. “I got into a Jaeger, something I swore I would never do again, for you. I fought an _alien monster_ for you. What do you think?”

Ryan narrowed his eyes. “Is that a yes?”

Shane laughed under his breath and brought Ryan’s hand up to kiss his knuckles. “Yes, Ry-guy. That’s a yes. I’ll stay with you forever if you want me to.”

Squirming in his seat at the sudden rush of pleased nerves, Ryan muttered, “Yeesh, it wasn’t a proposal.”

With a shrug that was completely unconcerned, Shane leaned back and made a show of making himself comfortable. “Either way. I’ll be here. We’re Drift compatible, baby. You ain’t getting rid of me that easily”

The doctors walked in at that moment, saving Ryan from having to reply.

It said something about how common the knowledge of their relationship was that neither doctor even paused when they saw that Shane was there and holding his hand.

There was a few minutes of bustling around, of wires being connected and questions being asked that Ryan only caught the gist of, terminology that he didn’t have the proper background for. Finally, though, when he thought he was going to vibrate out of his skin from impatience, he was given the go-ahead.

Ryan took a deep breath, staring down at Brent with determination. He had saved the day, he had gotten his guy, and now he was going to rescue his friend. It was as simple as that.

At his nod, the doctors pressed the button to initiate the Drift.

Just as he fell into the well of Brent’s memories, he felt the pressure of Shane’s fingers around his own, a sensation that followed him down.

A tether that he knew he would always be able to follow back home.

**Author's Note:**

> An AU asked for by about two people, but it sounded fun! There wasn't much research put into it, so mea culpa if there are glaring mistakes in the references to the movie canon. 
> 
> Come yell at me at [Mephsation.](https://mephsation.tumblr.com/) <3
> 
> Hope y'all enjoyed it!


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